{"id":115,"date":"2011-04-27T20:42:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T20:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/permissiontolive\/2011\/04\/religious-conversation-and-the-meaning-of-faith\/"},"modified":"2011-04-27T20:42:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-27T20:42:00","slug":"religious-conversation-and-the-meaning-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/permissiontolive\/2011\/04\/religious-conversation-and-the-meaning-of-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"Religious conversation, and the meaning of Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

We were heading out<\/span> the door for a Good Friday dinner with a church family, and Ms Action wouldn\u2019t stop asking questions. <\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s birthday is it?\u201d<\/em> (If we are going to a \u201cparty\u201d it must be someone\u2019s birthday right?)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not anyone\u2019s birthday. Today is Good Friday, the day when Christian\u2019s believe that Jesus died.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus died on the cross?\u201d<\/em> (Must be info from Sunday school, because I don\u2019t remember talking about this with her.)<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, Jesus died on a cross.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did Jesus die?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cJesus died because some people didn\u2019t like what he taught, so they killed him for something he didn\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a cross?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYes. It was a long time ago, people don\u2019t die on crosses anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

While we were heading to the car, she stopped and drew on the deck with a piece of chalk. <\/p>\n

\u201cLook Mom! It\u2019s the cross where Jesus died! We have to tell everyone that Jesus died on the cross.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

On Sunday<\/span>, she was asking questions again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is Easter Mom?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cEaster is the day Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead.\u201d (Why does it sound so weird, like I\u2019m telling her that Sleeping Beauty is real?)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did Jesus rose from the dead?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cJesus is alive again, because he conquered death, for everyone. So that when people die they can go to be with him.\u201d <\/p>\n

****************************<\/div>\n

My daughter<\/span> is already asking so many questions about faith, and sometimes it makes me nervous. I don\u2019t initiate talks about God, but I don\u2019t want to shut down her questions and curiosity. How do I answer honestly about something that I\u2019m not even sure I believe in some days?<\/a> How do I teach about religion and faith without the old tapes of fear and condemnation? <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not afraid of God anymore. I\u2019m not obsessed with my sins or freaking out about my eternal destiny. I don\u2019t feel all warm and fuzzy when I pray, I know that most prayers aren\u2019t answered<\/a>, and I\u2019m OK with that. I think that the Bible is a bunch of humans attempting to explain their belief in God in their context and time. I don\u2019t think that it should be taken literally word for word and used to attack others. I go to church, and I continue to plan on taking my kids to church because I am not a god unto myself<\/a> and I refuse to isolate them from religion just because I don\u2019t like it all that much. I don\u2019t dress a certain way, eat a certain way, or avoid certain books movies or people because of religion. I don\u2019t have a whole lot of religious \u201cexperiences\u201d that convince me of the reality of a God, or make me feel loved by him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m one of those<\/u> Christians that some people (including myself in past days<\/em>) would point out as someone who \u201cdoesn\u2019t have a personal relationship with Christ\u201d. <\/p>\n

The old me\u00a0would say that I am trying to make it to heaven on my own, in reality I\u2019m not sure if there is a literal heaven, and I don\u2019t really care if I go there. The old me\u00a0would say that I am closing my ears and my heart to the truth, in reality I\u2019m not sure there is a definite truth. The old me\u00a0would doubt my salvation and\u00a0say that I am headed for selfishness and unhappiness, in reality I have never understood my value as a person more, never loved my spouse more, never been able to love my children this much, and never been this happy.<\/p>\n

************************<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

In short, religion is nothing of what it used to be to me.<\/span> And yet I struggle to understand religion outside of the fundamentalist box in which I always understood it<\/a>. So I am still tempted to see myself as a \u201creally bad Christian.\u201d When are you Christian enough to call yourself a Christian? What exactly does it mean to live a life of faith?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I\u2019ve written a bit about what my religion is not, and here I\u2019m trying to think out loud about what my religion is right now.<\/div>\n
Religion can have a richness of liturgy and ritual, a way to mark the milestones and the passage of time. <\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/strong><\/div>\n
Religion can have a way of drawing your attention off of your own obsessions and focusing it towards serving others. <\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/strong><\/div>\n
Religion is community<\/strong><\/a>. And it sucks sometimes. But if we only hang out with people exactly like us, do we really have the capacity for <\/strong>true compassion and empathy<\/strong><\/a>?<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/strong><\/div>\n
Religion is a way for you to feel cared for when no one else gives a rat\u2019s rear end about you. Maybe, just maybe, there is a greater being who gives a crap.<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/strong><\/div>\n
Religion is a way to explain the the inexplicable. A way to express gratitude and thankfulness in those moments in life that are beautiful. It\u2019s a way to let go when life hurts and there really isn\u2019t anything you can do.<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/strong><\/div>\n
Religion is a way to cope with death and loss. It can give you the tools to cope with suffering when there is no reason on this earth to hope. And sometimes, <\/strong>that hope is all you need to keep hanging on<\/strong><\/a>. <\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Jesus said\u2026 \u201cI am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?\u201d <\/em><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

John 11:25 <\/em><\/div>\n
Do I believe this? Some days I don\u2019t know. But it\u2019s beautiful, and I want it to be true<\/a>. I see no problem with living my life with the idea that it could be true, and I don\u2019t mind if my daughter believes it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
If God really is worth serving, I don\u2019t think that he is waiting for me to get every little thing right to achieve that exact formula for \u201ctruth\u201d, or believe every moment with complete certainty. If God is a being that I will grow to love, then he will be patient with me. <\/em><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

What is the meaning of faith? Why do you believe?<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/em><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were heading out the door for a Good Friday dinner with a church family, and Ms Action wouldn\u2019t stop asking questions. \u201cWho\u2019s birthday is it?\u201d (If we are going to a \u201cparty\u201d it must be someone\u2019s birthday right?) \u201cIt\u2019s not anyone\u2019s birthday. Today is Good Friday, the day when Christian\u2019s believe that Jesus died.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nReligious conversation, and the meaning of Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We were heading out the door for a Good Friday dinner with a church family, and Ms Action wouldn\u2019t stop asking questions. \u201cWho\u2019s birthday is it?\u201d (If we\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/permissiontolive\/2011\/04\/religious-conversation-and-the-meaning-of-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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